City asks flood victims to retrieve stored items

Friday

Aug 24, 2007 at 12:01 AM

For families who stored furniture and personal items at the Miami Warehouse after the recent flooding in and around Miami, it's time to retrieve their belongings.

“Hopefully as people are fixing up their homes they can move their belongings back in and get their lives back to some normalcy,” said Tim Wilson, Miami's public works director. “It was a blessing to the flood victims for Mr. (Allan) Kaspar to open his doors to our residents. Sixty days have passed so we need to find other locations for the possessions so Mr. Kaspar can get back to their normal work schedule.”

Kaspar was a flood victim himself in 1976 when his home in Independence, Kan., was flooded.

“I know what it is like,” he said. “We didn't get any help at all and it's been a lot different in this community and I wanted to be part of that and help people out.”

Kaspar said Wednesday families who have used the warehouse for storage should try to have their items removed by September 1.

Kaspar owns a 1.2 million square foot warehouse on B.F. Goodruch Boulevard in Miami. After an early July flood in and around Miami he committed to allow area residents to store items at his facility for up to 60 days.

Kaspar said Wednesday 75 families had used about 40,000 square feet of his warehouse to store furniture and personal items and that 32 families were still storing items at his facility.

“If somebody needs longer, they need to see me and I'll work with them,” Kaspar said. “I'm not going to throw anyone out.”